MARGINALIZATION (Different learners in Marginalized Group
Epic Poetry Elements
1. University of Duhok
Collage of Languages
English Department
Epic Poetry
Supervised by:
Ms. Mead
Presenter:
Zahida Ibrahim
Group:B
2. Definition
• The English word epic itself comes from the Ancient
Greek adjective επικός (epikos), from (epos), which
means “words, story, poem”
• Epic poem is a long narrative poem usually about
heroic deeds that tell tales of intense adventures and
heroic events. Stories of exceptional people, both real
and fictional
3. Examples of Epic poem :
• The lliad and Odyssey (Ancient Greek)
• The Aeneid (Ancient Roman)
• Gilgamesh (Ancient Mesopotamian)
• The Ramayana (Ancient Indian)
• Beowulf (Medieval English)
• The Edda (Medieval Icelandic)
• Jewang Ungi (Medieval Korean)
• Journey to the West (Medieval Chinese)
• The Tale of the Heike (Medieval Japanese)
4. The Odyssey by homer
"Tell me, O muse, of that ingenious hero who
travelled far and wide after he had sacked the
famous town of Troy. Many cities did he visit,
and many were the nations with whose manners
and customs he was acquainted; moreover he
suffered much by sea while trying to save his
own life and bring his men safely home; but do
what he might he could not save his men, for
they perished through their own sheer folly in
eating the cattle of the Sun-god Hyperion; so the
god prevented them from ever reaching home.
Tell me, too, about all these things, O daughter
of Jove, from whatsoever source you may know
them.”
5. How Did Epics Originate?
• Started from Greek & Asia epic poem is the earliest
form of poetry, entertainment as well.
• Epic poems trace back to some of the earliest human
civilizations -both European andAsian. Take the Epic of
Gilgamesh, considered by some scholars to be the
oldest surviving example of great literature. The poem
is thought to have been written in approximately2100
BC and traces back to ancientMesopotamia. It tells of
the ancient king Gilgamesh, a descendant from the
Gods, who embarks on a journey to discover the secret
of immortality
6. • The traditional epic poems were shaped from the legends of the
Greek heroic age, when the Mykenaean Greeks
or Akhaeanswere on the move and engaged in military
conquest and expansion during the Trojan War.
8. The two types of epic
• Folk Epics have been passed down orally by storytellers for
generations and have changed over time.
Examples: Beowulf, The Iliad, and The Odyssey
• Literary Epics are written works that remain unchanged.
Examples:
The Aeneid and Paradise Lost
9. Themes
• Love
• Loyalty
• Gender
• Sexual Desire
• Honor
• Heroism
• Death
• Family
• Power
• Friendship
• Hospitality
10. EPIC STYLE OF WRITING
• Is written in a formal style
• The main type of structure for an epic poem is non-linear.
• Flashbacks are used to facilitate a non-linear structure.
• There is the repetition at length by a speaker of another
speaker's, their own or the narrator's earlier words.
• The repetition of epithets. Epithets - descriptive word or phrase to
accompany or replace a person's name "Brave Odysseus" or
"wine-dark sea"
11. • Kenning example Mankind's enemy . Beowulf
• An epic poem is a ceremonial performance
• alliteration example“to feast his fill of the flesh of men” /“for
fear of a feud were forced to disown him”
• (403-405). Beowulf
• Epic Simile
Epic poems often contain epic similes, which are long, highly
descriptive similes that clarify the subject.
"And swift Achilles kept on coursing Hector, nonstop as a hound
in the mountains starts a fawn from its lair”
12. EPIC STYLE OF WRITING
• Epic poem using rhyme scheme
• Epic poem does not have a particular rhyme scheme , The most
famous Western epics, Homer’s Greek “Iliad” and “Odyssey” and
“Aeneid,”they don’t use rhyme scheme.
• The translated versions of ” Iliad “ is in heroic couplet. Heroic
consist of iambic pentameter lines that rhyme AA, BB, CC and so
13. • Iambic pentameter
• Iambic = unstressed,stressed
• Pentameter = five feet on a line
14. • Ancient Greek epics and Latin epics were typically composed in
dactylic hexameter. This pattern is also referred to as heroic
hexameter. This metrical pattern can be seen in Virgil's Aeneid
as well as Ovid's Metamorphosis and Homer's Iliad, about the
siege of Troy, and Odyssey.
• Old Germanic epics (including those in Old English) typically
contained non-rhyming alliterative verse.
• Later English language epics were written in Spenserian
stanzas and blank verse.
17. Elements of epic poem
• A hero of legendary proportions
• The Setting is vast in scope
• Adventure requiring superhuman strength
• Involvement of the supernatural
• Omniscient narrator
• Often in media res
18. • A hero of legendary proportions
• Known as an epic hero
• The hero has a connection or
relationship with the gods. He is
either a demigod or under their
protection or curse
• The Setting is vast in scope
• The setting is large in scale,
sometimes world-wide, or at least of
the known world.
Beowulf the warrior hero of Beowulf.
19. • An Adventure of Superhuman
Strength
The heroes are legends because they
are exaggerations of the normal
human. They have greater strength .
piety. valor. Etc .
• Involvement of the Supernatural
There are a good many different
elements that may appear in an epic.
Gods and goddesses, angels and
demons, and immortality are among
the most common.
20. Omniscient Narrator
• Omniscience refers to a narrator
that is god-like in his/her knowledge;
an omniscient narrator sees all and
knows all
• Narrators are objective - they do not
insert an opinion as to the goings
on in the story
21. • In media res
• in media res is Latin for "in the middle
of things.
• • This term refers to a story that
begins in the middle of the action,
rather than at the beginning.
• Story begins in the middle and
flashes back so that the reader can
understand the current situation
Achilles bind the wounds of Patroclus in Homer's The Iliad